The Meetings of Anna 1978 ‘Les Rendez-vous d'Anna’ Directed by Chantal Akerman
Anna is a film director whose job takes her all over western Europe. In each place she either already has some intimate connection, or readily makes one. People seem drawn to her, but inevitably insist on sharing their inmost secrets and discontents with her, despite her obvious and profound lack of interest in these revelations. This does not deter Anna from continuing to meet people, and she genuinely connects with them occasionally, as when she sees her mother briefly in Brussels.
De Afspraken van Anna
It's been about an hour since the final voice message played and this film closed and I sit here absolutely floored by the power of Chantal Akerman's cinema. Her work specifically in the 70s has become something of great importance to me personally. Her films in this period are formally rigorous, pushing the form into areas that I'm not sure had been approached yet and it's a shame that nobody remembers her for anything other than Jeanne Dielman.
Les Rendez-vous d’Anna is a deeply personal kind of autobiographical tale. Anna moves through cities showing her films having short encounters with strangers, friends and family and each scene is filled with a kind of unknowing sadness that seeps through. Anna is…
In New Orleans, everything is demarcated temporally as "before the storm" or "after the storm." The entire world is shaped and colored by Hurricane Katrina and the federal floods, and it comes up in unexpected ways, from casual references used to indicate when something happened to significant, simple explanations for why something is the way it is now. It's always there. In The Meetings of Anna, the watershed moment that seems to haunt all of the characters is apparently WWII.
It's there haunting everyone Anna meets, directly or indirectly, from lost loved ones to the economic results of the war. It has, over the 30 years between the end of it and the time of this film, altered countless lives,…
i feel so seen and unseen.
with such long, stationary takes, akerman (as she did so masterfully in jeanne dielman) invites you to step into the frame. there are so many quiet moments but never a dull one. it’ll be hard to shake that forlorn feeling by the end.
Chantal Akerman almost exclusively works on horizontal planes of space. Her compositions are known for their flat, minimalist staging, and she usually cuts with perpendicular angles to emphasize each shot's flatness. So one of the many surprising shots in Les Rendez-Vous d'Anna comes early. Anna leaves her hotel in Germany, and the camera tracks alongside her in a horizontal dolly. Suddenly, a flash of vertical motion interrupts the frame. It's a female maid, almost nonchalantly in the background, waving a sheet as she makes the bed. Another few moments later, another maid appears in the depth of the frame, also working. Akerman then cuts to a perpendicular frame, as Anna continues to walk down the hallway, and three more maids…
"I miss you. I have no one to talk to."
"But you never talked to me."
Feelings of loneliness and isolation radiate through every frame, yet there's just enough tenderness to keep me going. People are drawn to Anna, and they want to tell her everything, but to know someone's secrets is not the same as being close to them. To watch Anna through Akerman's static camera as she tries to find a real love in these lonely cities is richly engaging. It's a slow movie -- I would be lying if I said parts of it didn't bore me. However, in the case of films like this, where the narrative takes a back seat to character and atmosphere, I…
Subtle and sensitive. An honest depiction of a thoughtful character whose stares speak louder than words. The symmetry of the shots is naturally poetic as it would seem to mimic Anna's emotions.
I struggled to get through this, and I’m certain I didn’t necessarily enjoy it. Akerman wants to explore the dull and mundane moments of life, which naturally leads the film to feeling, well, dull and mundane. It can get very slow and almost motionless, and very little really happens. But, I appreciate and admire the craft immensely. I understand what Akerman is doing here and why, and the more thought I put into the craft and individual scenes, I realise more and more the themes and ideas she’s going for. I definitely started to warm up to it towards the end, and really enjoyed its last half hour, but it was still a very difficult watch.
A sense of melancholy pervades this film as it follows a female filmmaker who is showing her film in Germany. She has a series of encounters without any long-term relationship. The meetings are very well acted as the film builds in poignancy.
I found Anna's isolation to be all-encompassing without being suffocating--if that makes any sense. Essential cinema here.
Figures in a landscape of loneliness.
Don't believe I've seen a more melancholy metaphor for a stark symbol of detachment and disconnection in a lonely life than the conclusion involving Anna and her answering machine in the darkness of her bedroom.
nothing happens in this film and I really struggle to enjoy films like that, but there were some really beautiful shots which made up for my boredom ever so slightly
I think it was about emotional labour? that’s what I took from it anyway
I stupidly keep worrying I’m going to get into an Akerman film and it will be as boring as all of her films seem to threaten to be. But each one is lovely and lovely and lovely and lovely and I’m always so happy Inexperienced her art.
Akerman has to be one of the most brave and interestingly intelligent filmmakers ever.
Every conversation is someone wanting something from Anna, except with her mom. She’s so quiet when everyone is trying to make her feel guilty for not being a certain way or doing certain things but then with her mom she’s so free. And just the way she looks at her mom. The way her mom repeats certain things from ‘News From Home’. This is like ‘News From Home’ and ‘Je Tu Elle’ meshed together with the craft of ‘Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’.
Mom: I won’t always be.
Anne: Yes you will.
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